Luke 16:6 in 8 translations
8 distinct wordings, grouped by what each translation is trying to do. Differences from the King James text are marked below.
Early modern English
Seventeenth-century wording and sentence shape. Familiar, rhythmic, and the version most quotations you have heard are taken from.
And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.
1611 / 1769 · Public domain · The Authorised Version, revised to the 1769 Blayney text. Includes the Apocrypha as printed in 1611.
Literal, word-for-word
Follows Hebrew and Greek word order and grammar closely, even where the English becomes stiff. Useful for seeing what the underlying sentence is doing.
And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bond, and sit down quickly and write fifty.
1901 · Public domain · The American revision of the English Revised Version. Deliberately literal, and the base text behind several later translations.
And he said, A hundred baths of oil. And he said to him, Take thy writing and sit down quickly and write fifty.
1890 · Public domain · John Nelson Darby's translation, made for close study rather than public reading. Often exposes grammatical detail other versions smooth over.
and he said, A hundred baths of oil; and he said to him, Take thy bill, and having sat down write fifty.
1898 · Public domain · The most extreme word-for-word rendering here, keeping Hebrew and Greek tense and word order at the cost of natural English.
Modern English
Contemporary vocabulary and punctuation, aiming for the sentence a present-day reader would write while staying close to the source.
He said, ‘A hundred batos of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’
2000s · Public domain · A modern-English update of the ASV. Reads close to contemporary speech while staying in the literal tradition. Includes the Apocrypha.
‘Four hundred and forty gallons of oil,’ answered the man. ‘Here is your agreement,’ he said; ‘sit down at once and make it two hundred and twenty.’
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · A modern open-licensed translation, still being completed. Some Old Testament books are not yet available.
“Four hundred and forty gallons of oil,” answered the man. “Here is your agreement,” he said; “sit down at once and make it two hundred and twenty.”
in progress · Public domain (CC0) · The Commonwealth spelling edition of the Open English Bible. Identical wording to the US edition apart from spelling.
Simplified English
Built from a deliberately small vocabulary so the sense stays reachable for new readers and non-native speakers. Trades nuance for clarity.
And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said, Take your account straight away and put down fifty.
1949 · Public domain · Written with roughly a thousand basic English words plus a small Bible vocabulary. The plainest reading available here.
What changes between the King James and modern wording
The modern rendering is printed below with every word that differs from the King James text marked, so the actual divergence is visible rather than left for you to spot.
he said, ‘A hundred batos of oil.’ he said to him, Take your bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.’
Word-for-word swaps
- An→A
- measures→batos
- And→oil
- unto→to
- thy→your
The verses either side
King James text. A comparison is easier to judge when you can see the sentence the verse sits inside.